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Synonyms

tic

1 American  
[tik] / tɪk /

noun

  1. Pathology.

    1. a sudden, spasmodic, painless, involuntary muscular contraction, as of the face.

    2. tic douloureux.

  2. a persistent or recurrent behavioral trait; personal quirk.

    her distinctive verbal tics.
-tic 2 American  

  1. a suffix, equivalent in meaning to -ic, occurring in adjectives of Greek origin (analytic ), used especially in the formation of adjectives from nouns with stems in -sis: hematotic; neurotic.

tic British  
/ tɪk /

noun

  1. spasmodic twitching of a particular group of muscles

  2. See tic douloureux

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of tic1

First recorded in 1790–1800; from French (of expressive origin)

Origin of -tic2

< Greek -tikos, extracted from adjectives derived with -ikos -ic from agent nouns ending in -tēs; hieratic

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.